20 year-old Adelaide Hall performed with numerous all-African-American cast productions in the early 20th Century, including shows by Eubie Blake and W.C. Handy. In 1927, Adelaide was appearing in Dance Mania with Duke Ellington. At a stop at the Standard Theater in Philadelphia, Ellington introduced a new composition, an instrumental he called “Creole Love Call.” Adelaide …
While working as an usherette at the Lyric Theater in Mobile, Alabama, Patricia “Boots” Mallory was offered a spot in the travelling show by Florenz Ziegfeld. She accepted and soon traveled with the troupe to New York where she was featured in the 1931 Ziegfeld Follies. Moving to Hollywood, “Boots” joined Fox Films and made …
In his fifty-plus year career as a pioneer in agricultural science, Luther Burbank invented and developed more than 800 strains and varieties of plants, including fruits, flowers, grains, grasses and vegetables. Among his creations are the Shasta daisy, the freestone peach, the fire poppy, the July Elberta peach, the Santa Rosa plum, the Flaming Gold …
Honestly…. who didn’t love Carol Channing?
After her parents’ divorce, nine-year-old Alice Childress moved to Harlem to live with her grandmother. Despite her own lack of formal education, Alice’s grandmother encouraged young Alice to pursue her natural love for reading and writing. However, Alice had to drop out of school after her grandmother’s death. While working several low-paying jobs, Alice became …
In the gimmicky early days of rock and roll and the British Invasion, Honey Lantree stood out. Not because she was a woman in a field dominated by men. It was because she refused to be a “gimmick.” Honey wasn’t sitting behind a drum kit for The Honeycombs as a novelty. She was a very …
Abner Doubleday was a career officer in the Union Army during the Civil War, achieving the rank of 2-star General. In the early days of the war, Doubleday fired the first shot at the Battle of Fort Sumter. He also played a pivotal role in the Battle of Gettysburg. He was, however, relieved of his …
In 1859, Milton Bradley set up the first color lithography company in Springfield, Massachusetts. He began selling printed copies of a portrait of then-unknown, up-and-coming presidential candidate Abraham Lincoln. Soon, complaints from customers poured in, claiming that Bradley’s production was not an accurate representation of Lincoln. It seems that the candidate had grown a beard …
In a career that spanned six decades, Nancy Wilson made a name for herself singing jazz, rhythm & blues and pop hits in her own inimitable style. She won three Grammy Awards, her first two coming forty years apart. She was honored by numerous groups and organizations as a “song stylist,” a moniker that she …
Raise a big glass of milk and Pepsi to a career filled with great accomplishment.
